J.A.M.

Archive for the ‘My Life Story’ Category

Lately I’ve been thinking back a lot to the mid 1980’s and reliving the memories through the music of the era – particularly the club music of the day which I’ve been collecting now for some time from a website which has preserved a lot of it. Let me share the memories …..

I was in the Army at Eastern Province Command in Port Elizabeth. A chef in the Non-Commissioned Officers Kitchen. I had wanted to be in the Navy Band and had applied for it in my Matric year but for some reason had ended up in the Army as a chef. This was me on the day I left for the Army back in January 1984……

The Day I Left For The Army - January 1984

I did my Basic Training at Elandsfontein Catering School, north of Pretoria. It lasted for 6 months and was no less lenient than at other bases just because it was a Catering School. It was tough. As a matter of fact it was horrible – but those days taught me a lot about life, myself and helped to bring me out of the cocoon I had lived in as a young person. I was terribly insecure back in those days.

Basic training ended and I found myself on a train on the way to Port Elizabeth to serve as a ‘qualified’ Chef for the next 18 months at EP Command. Those 18 months redefined my life in a big way and helped to mold me into the person I am today. I made some wise choices and good friendships. I made some rotten choices and really bad friendships. Memories to last a lifetime were created though. Whether you liked a person or not in the Army was irrelevant. You learned to get on with people you would not normally have chosen to get on with. You functioned as a team or else you suffered the consequences which were not good.

On Duty In The Kitchen At EP Command

EP Command NCO Mess

In my first few months there I kept very much to myself. Working in the kitchen was a different lifestyle. The hours were ‘strange’. I needed to be up and frying eggs etc long before anyone else was awake and many times got to bed long after everyone else was in bed. Weddings and special functions for the top brass in the Army were regularly catered for until all hours of the night. It was while I was in the kitchen that I met Thane and Raymond who were to change my life in a significant way. Raymond was a Permanent Force member who had been transferred in from another base and was also a Chef. Over the months that followed I was to form a very close bond with him and he became like a real brother to me. He was very much into the Reggae lifestyle and was a white Rastafarian. A very gentle, ‘real’ person though. He taught me to believe in myself. He taught me to ride a Motor Bike (well sort of …). He also taught me a remedy for a headache I complained of one day …… a little green plant known well by Rastafarian’s – but that’s a story for another Blog post. Thane was a young man with very deep psychological issues. He was a Transexual – meaning he was convinced that he was a “woman inside a man’s body”. He wasn’t gay – he truly was like a woman in looks, speech and build. Thane, Raymond and I became inseperable. Our friendship was pure and good despite our ‘issues’ and together we created some very special memories ‘back in the day’. We wrote a lot of ‘inspired’ poetry 🙂 and listened to a lot of music – Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, Grace Jones, Shawn Phillips, Depeche Mode, OMD etc. Good days and good memories. Thane wanted to have a sex change. We stayed in touch for a while after the Army came to an end in 1985 – and even lived together in a flat in Port Elizabeth and Cape Town for a while – and then after making a big decision to sort out my drug problem (which had developed to an unacceptable level) and move back to my parents in Cape Town we lost touch. I have tried many times over the years to re establish contact with him to find out what happened in his life – but he has all but disappeared off the face of the earth. Maybe he did have that op and became “Deana Varella” …. Hope I find out one day. The last time I spoke to Raymond (which was a good few years back now) he was happily married with 2 children and a member of the Christian Motorcycle Association. I have since lost contact with him too which is sad. If anyone reading this knows the whereabouts of Thane Riddin or Raymond Channer – please let me know.

(09 July 2012) In the past few months I have re-established contact with Thane and we have been keeping in touch.

Raymond Channer

Thane Riddin

Anyway – going back to EP Command and my ‘Cheffing’ days. It was late one night and I was in my bed in the dormitory – rather tired as I had catered that night for a Wedding Reception. A few guys who I knew from sight but not personally came down to my bed and asked if I would like to go with them to a “Disco” – as they termed it. Now to say I had had a sheltered upbringing would be a huge understatement. There I was, an 18 year old guy who had never been to a “Disco” in his life. The idea was exciting and I said I would go. I got up, got dressed and headed off what was to become known to me as “The Club” over the next few years. We arrived and I stepped into a whole new world. I felt I belonged there. The music was loud, the fashion was very “New Wave” (being the 80’s) and the people were really friendly. I was almost immediately introduced to the DJ at “The Club” – David (or Dawie as he preferred). Micky was his nickname at the club but I always called him Dawie. I sat in the DJ booth with him that night and over time we became really good friends. He was good friends with the owner (Mervyn – who owned Video World in PE at that time) and as time went by I would arrive before opening time with them at the club on Wednesdays, Fridays & Saturdays – and leave them with them at closing time – normally as the sun was rising to head off for a Coffee Shop that stayed open all night.The Clubs name was ‘Partners’. It later evolved into ‘Plum Crazy’ in another part of North End, Port Elizabeth. Today’s equivalent would be ‘Aqua’. I also used to go to ‘Andrews’ – a very ‘literally’ underground club, ‘Jacqueline’s’ & ‘Strawberry Fields’. ‘Partners’ and ‘Plum Crazy’ were my Club of choice though.

When I met Dawie he was in Matric and also lived on the Army Base as his Dad was a Permanent Force Sargent. I spent many nights at his little ‘flat’ in the back yard listening to music from the club and talking the night away before creeping back to the Dormitory just before sunrise. He left School and was drafted off into the Army. I then became the DJ at “The Club” and this is where my love for music really took off. It was the era of High Energy music (the Rave music of the day – the precursor to Techno). Artists like Divine, Earlene Bentley, Miguel Brown, Eartha Kitt, Hazell Dean, Lime etc ensured the dance floor was packed every night. CD’s had not been invented yet so everything was still Vinyl and the 12″ Maxi Single was King – or Queen – depending on which way you looked at it! Controlling the lights (helicopters and strobes) were great fun and I immersed myself in the whole High Energy craze. I still collect it today and have a very extensive collection of music from back then (1984/ 1985). There is a blog on the Internet which provides links to a lot of this ‘rare’ music if you are keen on getting your hands on some of it. David would often come up on a Weekend Pass from the Army and we’d DJ together. As the sun was beginning to rise the Club would close to the strains of Barbara Streisand’s “Woman In Love”. The introduction to the song would announce to those left on the dance floor that it was now “time to go home”. Some 10 years later Dawie traced me to my home in East London (we’d lost contact after a breakup in our friendship due to my drug habit back then). We chatted for quite a while on the phone one night – said goodnight and about two weeks later a mutual friend of ours from back then – Abrie – tracked me down to let me know he had committed suicide. I’ve often wondered why and think back with many fond memories to the times we spent together back when life was simple and the ‘crazyness of Youth’. Abrie, Sheldon, Dawie and I were good friends back then. Sadly I have no photo’s of Dawie to show here. Am glad to say though that Abrie and I are still friends and it was good to see him again recently.

(09 July 2012) I learnt in the past few weeks that Abrie sadly passed away of a heart attack recently at the age of 45.

Abrie, Sheldon and I - and Blommie (Abrie's Car)

I have provided a link to a sound file I made recently. It’s a re-creation of 2 and and half hours of “Partners” in the mid 80’s complete with “Barbara’s” closing song. It’s around 130 MB so is a large file but well worth the download. It’s a collection of songs taken from the original Maxi Singles we all used to enjoy dancing to so much – mixed as I would have mixed them back then. Download it if you are interested in re-living an era that was truly special and PLEASE if you are reading this and have memories of ‘Partners’ or “Plum Crazy’ – please get in touch with me. I’d love to hear from you.

The songs in the sound file are:

Relax – Frankie Goes To Hollywood
False Alarm – Marsha Raven
Face To Face – The Twins
Do You Wanna Funk – Sylvester
Danger – The Flirts
Catch Me – Marsha Raven
So Many Men So Little Time – Miguel Brown
Coming Out Of Hiding – Earlene Bentley
Masquerade – Earlene Bentley
Lover Come Back To Me – Dead Or Alive
Colour My Love – Fun Fun
I Love Men – Eartha Kitt
Male Stripper – Man 2 Man
Menergy – Paul Parker
You Think You’re A Man – Divine
Emergency – Laura Pallas
Slice Me Nice – Fancy
Earthquake – Marsha Raven
Searchin’ – Hazell Dean
Skiing In The Snow – Laura Pallas
Walk Like A Man – Divine
You’re My Heart You’re My Soul – Modern Talking
Woman In Love – Barbara Streisand

(‘Partners’ Mix In Memory Of Dawie Jooste)

Download the 2 and a half hour mix ‘Partners Style’ – here

1st Day Of School

Candy floss!
It was 1972 and to this day, I remember it smelling like candy floss. My first day of school sticks out in my memory as clearly as the ink on this page. I know I didn’t cry. My brother did a couple of years later when he started school. The Daily Dispatch of the following day bore witness to it with a wonderful picture of him and my Mother on his first day – and yes ….he was crying alright. My Mom had booked off sick to take him to school on his first day. She didn’t know that she was going to get her photo in the paper though. Anyway – that’s another story altogether. I didn’t cry. This was big school… it was an adventure. I hadn’t been to nursery school. They were fully booked when I was old enough to go a year or two earlier. I remember crying then…… but this day I didn’t cry. I was excited.

I remember the windows of that little classroom being incredibly high – far above my head. I’ve never been back, although I’ve longed to, but I suppose if I were to go back there I would find the windows pretty normal. I would probably stare out of them without much effort. Somehow the outside world was so much more mysterious back then. The windows were very high. Standing on your toes wouldn’t have helped at all.

I remember Miss Whittal. She was my Sub A teacher. I liked her a lot. I have very clear memories of her writing the alphabet on the blackboard. I never did understand why it was called a blackboard when it was clearly green. I remember Janet and John and how they taught me: “See the dog. See Janet walk the dog. See John. See John throw the ball for the dog”. Somehow they seem so far away in my memory but somehow so near at the same time. I remember clearly sitting with my nose against the wall under the blackboard at break time one day. I cannot remember why but that activity was normally reserved for when you had misbehaved. I had probably been talking in class.

Thinking back now some 30 odd years later so much is still so clear. I remember Leon and Arlene. Gary, Leona and Cherith. Vanessa, Michelle, Debbie, Norman…. I could go on and on and probably recall most of their names. Of course there was Denis. He was my best friend. I’d never had one of those before and don’t quite know at what point I had decided he was my best friend. I do know I was his best friend as well. It was a friendship that would survive the next seven years – through to Standard 5 – and then just disappear into memory. Strange how life can be like that. I remember bumping into his sister in a stationary shop sometime in the 90’s and her putting him in touch with me. I phoned him at a number in Johannesburg if I recall correctly – or was it Durban? Much had changed in his life. Much had changed in mine too. Somehow we sensed we still identified but didn’t talk too much about it. I didn’t hear from him again for many many years. Today, thanks to the wonder of Facebook we are once again in touch. Denis was my first best friend.

Class Photo - Southernwood Primary

I remember how we used to have to line up outside the school building every time the bell rang. Boys in front of the one entrance and girls in front of the other. We used to file off to the boys toilets in single file in-between classes. We used to watch ‘films’ as we would call them downstairs in a tiny little narrow room at the bottom of the stairs in the boys toilets. They would normally be about nature or Geography or some or other famous person in history. Sometimes the boys were not allowed to watch the same film as the girls. We knew though it was about ‘girls stuff’.

I remember going through the different standards and am aware now that those years were an important part of my self discovery. Naturally I didn’t see that then but looking back now I realize how I developed in those years. Was it positive development? Was it negative? I’m not sure really. I believe it was necessary development. I am of the opinion that everything that happens in our lives happens for a reason and how we understand and use whatever has happened – good or bad – is what it’s really all about. Everything in life is ultimately about choice really. When you’re a pre-teen though you don’t always understand that….

Somewhere along the line in those years I discovered that not everyone liked me. I don’t remember if anything specific happened to bring me to that realization, I just remember that there were many occasions that I used to eat my lunch sitting on huge rolled up carpets under the stairs that led down to the boys toilets. I think Denis must have been with me – we were quite inseparable. I remember being called ‘Sissy’, ‘Moffie’ and a whole lot of other derogatory names. I never could understand why and most of the time I didn’t even understand what the words meant. I wasn’t really sports minded – in fact I was scared on the sports field …. not only of the ball but of the boys as well.

The teachers inspired me. There was Miss Martin who I loved very much. Her birthday was on the same day as my Ouma’s – the 12^th of September. I used to take a present to school for her on that day. I remember once taking a porcelain hen that held eggs for her. She was my Sub B teacher. I remember hearing Bible stories in that classroom. I was given a little blue Bible – the King James version – because I belonged to the Scripture Union Club. It had a sticker with a picture of a bee stuck in the one cover. I haven’t seen that Bible for a long time. I know I kept it for many years.

Mrs. Battle was my Standard 1 teacher. We called her a battle axe! Miss Burmeister was my Standard 2 teacher. Her classroom was next to Miss Hinds who took the ‘Special Class’. They were children who weren’t like the ‘other’ children. I sort of identified with them although I was with the ‘normal’ children. Mr. Beaud was my Standard 3 teacher. He was a terrible person. His classroom was in a prefab building that had been built just outside the school building. He was a tall, thin, bald man who always smelled like old smoke. He used to throw cigarette lighters and blackboard dusters at you if you spoke in class. He was not very popular. My Standard 4 teacher was Mr. Kent. We felt quite special about him because we knew his first name – Richard. He was a well known South African cricketer and was quite famous in our little minds. It was a real honor to be able to say that he was our teacher. Mr. Emslie, the school principal, was my Standard 5 teacher. He wasn’t the principal when I started at Southernwood Primary. Back then it was Mr. Wegner….Mr. H.B. Wegner. No relation to a pencil.

I don’t really remember what I learnt at Primary School except for things like Racheltjie de Beer, Wolraad Woltemade, Jan van Riebeeck, Dick King (who I always got mixed up with Dick Wittington). I think my favorite subject was English. I also loved anything to do with Art – and music was just wonderful. It was a way to escape into another world. I remember detesting Woodwork. There were always such difficult drawings to do for homework – technical stuff. My brain didn’t work like that. I hated Woodwork. I clearly remember crying in my bedroom one night, very frustrated because I couldn’t do the homework I had been required to do. My Mom couldn’t help me either. I remember her asking – probably my Father: “Where did I go wrong?” That question haunted me for many years… (to be continued)

OK – this is the part of my Blog where I will probably make myself a bit vulnerable from time to time. I have had some interesting experiences in my life and it is my intention to one day write a book about it all. There have been times when things have been wonderful and there have been times when things have been … well … not so good. I’ve achieved quite a bit and I’ve failed dismally at times. The posts in this category will be somewhat scattered and one day when I get around to it properly I will sit down and try and condense it all into some sort of order into a book that will live on after me. We all have a story to tell and we all have a book buried deep inside of us. This is mine – in scattered fashion